#333 - Estate Planning in Retirement: Giving to Family

Retirement is often the time when people begin to think more about estate planning. On this episode in the Estate Planning series, we’ll talk about giving. You want to be able to give to your loved ones but you also don’t want to rob them of their problems. That’s why we’ll discuss how you can give without enabling and you’ll discover how to optimize the impact of your gift. You’ll also learn how to decide whether you have enough to give. When you begin to think intentionally you’ll see that there are so many ways to give.

“When you begin to think intentionally you’ll see that there are so many ways to give.”

Do you have enough to give?

It would be amazing to be able to give to your loved ones before you pass, but how will you know whether you have enough? The first hurdle in giving is being comfortable giving away your assets. What if you need that money later on? Actually that’s not so hard to figure out. Often times you’ll see that deciding how to give is less a money question than a mindset question. To be comfortable giving away assets you need to understand your level of fundedness. Are you underfunded, constrained, or overfunded? Once you understand this then you can begin to put a plan in place for giving.

How can you give intentionally?

We give for many reasons. A gift is an item that you give someone without an expectation of payment in return. Giving is a way to express feelings and emotions and share those feelings with the receiver. You may not want your gift to your heirs to come in the form of a check from an attorney several months after your death. There are more intentional ways that you can give so that your family can feel the love behind that gift.

“Giving is a way to express feelings and emotions and share those feelings with the receiver. ”

Enhance don’t enable

As parents, we would love to solve all of our children’s problems for them, but then we would be robbing them of that learning opportunity. One of the best gifts we can give our kids is not robbing them of their problems. We need to find ways to help them but also allow them to figure things out for themselves. There are ways that we can give to them that enhance their lives rather than enabling them.

There are many ways to give before you pass

Create memories - I think this is a fantastic way to give and to be able to enjoy that gift as a family. You could rent a house at the beach and help subsidize the family trip. Spend money to bring the family together.

Annual gifting - You can give anyone $15,000 per year without reporting it. You could help fund their Roth IRA or help buy them a house. You might be surprised when you find out how much the lifetime gift exemption is.

The gift of education - There are many ways to give for education. You can pay for college tuition directly. You could fund the grandkids 529 plan and allow the money to grow tax-free. You can also use up to $10,000 per year to fund a pre-college education if your grandkids are in private school.